Through The Glass
by Rissohma
Summary: Bella is falling for a certain gang leader and unknowingly finds herself sparking an intense rivalry between the two gangs of Forks, led by Jacob and Edward.
1. Reflection

Let me begin by saying that Forks is not a town of bars or crazy night clubs. I have never even seen a single graffittied wall. The only classification that Forks belongs to would be a middle class suburban neighborhood.

Exciting? Not so much.

So when I found myself placed in front of a court of highly paid adults, trying to explain a situation that only those in the suburban, teenage world would be able to understand, I knew that whatever I said would be twisted and misunderstood.

It came along with the whole teenager thing.

The thing is that when I was introduced as a member of the V.L. gang, I knew that my credibility was shot. That I was officially a statistic. That there was a psycologist somewhere among the room of faces that had already pegged me as a troubled girl who was never loved and who probably attends AA meetings when she wasn't busy being coked up.

Which just is not true.

So as I was being questioned among these highly intelligent, yet infinitely ignorant people, I couldn't help but smirk every so often at the hopelessness of my situation. And, more importantly, Edward's. Because never in my life had I met such a good bad person. And never in my life had I wanted to help someone this badly.

"Ms. Swan, would you say that you were in love with Mr. Edward Cullen?"

"Yes."

What point was there in denying it?

The truth is, I wish that I could just sit down with these people over coffee. I wish I could just tell them the entire story. From the begining.

That they could learn what being a V.L. member really was all about.

That they could look past the lies and rumour associated with our "gang".

That they could understand some of the situations that they were using to testify with.

And ,more importantly, that they could see Edward as he really was.

And not just for the sake of the court.

Because looking past all the lies and the misconceptions, V.L. was one of the greatest things to ever happen at Forks.

If I could just tell my entire story, they'd surely understand.

Starting from my first day as an innocent sophomore at Forks High School.

**This is gonna be the shortest chapter ever, btw. lol. I just needed something to open with. Review if you can!**


	2. Brawl

I was not a fan of Forks.

Actually, I hated nearly everything about it.

The only thing that had kept me from taking the first flight home on that fateful first day of school had been the knowledge that I had Jacob, someone that I had grown up with yet hadn't seen in years.

He welcomed me as if we were long lost friends (which, technically, I suppose we were) so it was natural that he would show me how Forks High worked.

"Freshmen sit over on that side of the cafeteria. Sophomores sit where we are, and juniors and seniors generally mingle on that side." Jacob explained to me as we sat down at his regular table during lunch. Already at the table were Embry and Leah, and I could see a few more of Jacob's friend head in this direction.

As with any school, my untrained eye could already make out the different cliques. The loose groups of people would meet up together and take their usual seat. Each person managed to maintain their own individuality, while still conforming to the jock, nerd, fashioniste stereotype.

Except one group.

Because where others would meet up and talk at their separate tables, one group moved as if they were one person.

They entered the cafeteria together, got their lunch together, and sat together in the senior section. Not only did they act as one unit, they had a similar sense of style and drew equal attention.

"The V.L.s." Jacob muttered, noticing what drew my attention. "They're like this gang. They're not even seniors."

"Gang?" I repeated, astonished. There were two girls among them who looked like they had never even stepped on grass, let along shot or mugged someone. The guys were all big, though. Or rather, one was huge, and the other two were well built.

"Not in the sense that I'm sure you're thinking." Jacob said, playing with the mashed potatoes on his tray. "They never speak to anyone but each other, and people have kind of given up hope trying to date or hang out with any one of them without the rest following. They're always together, and they're never seen outside of school. It's fucking wierd."

I looked over at them again and the tall blonde was laughing, her hand on the leg of the largest one. They seemed like fun people. Lighte hearted, even.

For gang members.

"They're loaded, too." Jacob continued. " So they're obviously not model citizens, if you know what I mean."

Drug dealing.

I supposed even the small population of Forks needed someone to hook them up.

As I was looking at their group the bronze haired one looked over, a questioning look in his eyes. I quickly turned away and Jacob laughed at the exchange. Had he really caught me staring?

I waited a minute and then looked back. He was still looking at me. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do, but his group of friends looked over at what he was staring at too. I continued staring, transfixed, until the bronze haired boy lifted his hand.

And flipped me off.

My face showed plain shock, but Jacob stood up from his chair.

"Hey!" Jacob yelled across the cafeteria. "What the hell's your problem?"

My shock only grew as I saw Jacob jump up from the table, causing Embry, Seth and Quil to follow. This, in turn, made three of the guys in the other group stand, including the one that had given me the finger.

Both sides did nothing for a few seconds, while the cafeteria went eerily quiet.

I held my breath, blushing from the sudden attention and just wanting this to stop.

Suddenly, Jacob started walking towards the table, his friends following him, leaving Leah and I alone at the table. My heart was pounding in my chest. Someone could get hurt. Especially if they were really some sort of a gang.

"You don't know what you're gonna start." the bronze haired one said as Jacob continued walking over. His words didn't sound mocking, they sounded like a real warning.

For a moment, I let myself believe that Jacob was going to say a few threats and then return to the table. I'm not sure why I thought this. Hopeful thinking perhaps. But before I even had a chance to yell, Jacob's fist made contact with the boy's face, sending him to the floor.

A short girl with black hair yelled his name. Edward.

And instantly the cafeteria was alive with movement and shouting. The big one pummeled Jacob to the floor, while Jacob's friends joined the brawl.

Without thinking, I ran across the cafeteria, elbowing past the crowd of cheering people. Leah was right behind me. There seemed to be just as many people rooting for Edward as there was for Jacob, which was surprising since the tone that Jacob spoke about the V.L.s implied that nobody liked them.

When we got to the front of the crowd, the first thing we saw (or heard, really) was the tall blond bitching out Embry, who was on the ground, holding his arm.

"Oh, hell no." Leah muttered, taking long strides towards the girl and slapping her in the face.

It seemed like forever until the faculty was able to make it to the pit of students. Even longer until they decided how they were possibly going to split up this amount of fights.

Surprisingly, all it took was a whistle.

Once the whistle sounded, all of the spectators stopped their cheering and turned around to see who had made the sound. With the sudden quiet, Jacob, Edward and company stopped their fighting and looked as well.

"All of you, to the office!" The man that blew the whistle yelled.

There were a few seconds of hesitation among the group, and for a moment I thought that they were going to go at it again, but when the blonde guy started walking towards the man, everyone else seemed to follow.

One by one they filed out through the path that had cleared, some of them with stoic expressions, others fist pounding friends. None of them unhappy or even angry.

Except Edward. As he passed by me he glanced over and smirked.

xXxXxXxX

With every one of my friends in the office, no doubt facing suspension, I was left alone in each of my classes.

Thanks, Jacob. You couldn't wait until my second day to start something?

With only two classes left, though, the odds of me managing to ruin everything was pretty low. Besides, rumours had already been spread about he new girl's involvement in the lunch time brawl. Not that anyone was upset over it. More than once I heard the term "best lunch ever".

But when Biology rolled around, I decided that I didn't feel like making friends. So I took an empty desk to sit at.

Due to the amount of people involved in the fight, there were only a few people in our class still present, so the teacher didn't even bother having class.

Which sucked.

I decided to busy myself by pretending to read a book, all the while considering how I was going to breach the subject of lunch with Jacob when I got home.

Until a boy sat himself beside me in the empty seat.

"Hey. My name's Mike." he said, extending his hand. A handshake. Nice.

"Bella." I said, shaking his. He wasn't necessarily an unattractive boy. As a matter of face, he was probably considered quite attractive, in that generic, boring kind of way.

He went straight to the point.

"So what went down to cause that spectacle during lunch? Your first day and guys are already fighting for you?" he laughed, but the question seemed to be a real one.

"Me and Jacob were friends when I was little, so he was only trying to be a good friend." I replied.

He also hates the V.L.s. I was probably just the excuse that he needed in order to cause some trouble.

"Nah. Jacob and his friends clash with Edward and his pretty regularly. I mean, not like_ that_. But they get under each other's skins all the time. Those two are the closest that Forks has to gangs." he laughed.

All this talk about gangs was starting to annoy me.

"How could Forks possibly have a gang with such a small town? The crime rate here has got to be non existant." I muttered. Mike laughed.

"They're not really gangs. It's just that the Wolves are pretty exclusive, and are definitly willing to get in a fight. The V.P.s are the most exclusive people around. Really, the only reason anyone titles them as a 'gang' is because if you mess with one of them, they'll all go after you." he mused. "Last year, this guy called Rosalie a slut, and ended up in the ER. The Cullens don't play games. They're like a family."

"The Wolves?" I asked.

"Yeah. The name of the kids that live on the reserve. You were sitting with them at lunch."

Mike and I talked for the rest of the period. He filled me in on the members of the V.L., though hardly anyone knew about their personalities farther than they could see in school.

It seemed that Rosalie Hale was the tall blond one. She is easily the most attractive person in Forks High. She is also Jasper Hale's sister and rumour was that she was dating Emmett Cullen.

Emmett Cullen was the biggest guy there. He was also brothers with Edward Cullen.

Edward Cullen was seen as the leader of the group. There were so many mysteries about him, and the rumours ranged from that he killed a man, to that he was mentally unstable. The only thing that people seemed to agree on was that he was rich, and noone knew why.

Jasper Hale was the quietiest one of the group, and had long blonde hair. It was rumoured that he was dating Alice Cullen, the small black ahired one, who was supposedly cousins with Edward and Emmett.

After hearing everything that Mike had to say, the group of attractive students seemed more like a cult to me. Especially since Mike enlightened me to the fact that V.L. stood for 'Vampire Lovers'. It was a reference to the legends in the reservation, but it really only made me envision animal sacrifice.

But, hey, I hadn't even known that Jacob was a leader of the Wolves.

The whole gang concept seemed ridiculous to me, considering I grew up in a big city and saw what gangs really were.

When the bell rang, signifying the end of the day, I made my way to the parking lot, escorted by Mike.

"So are you, like, a member of the Wolves?" he asked me.

I shook my head, mentally laughing at an imagine of me involved in a brawl. I would surely die.

"Are you going to be?"

"No." I replied. He seemed disappointed. "Why?"

"Because I wanted to know if there was a chance that I could join."

I walked away without even responding.

There was seriously something wrong with the people of Forks.

**Thank you for the support guys. lol. I'm trying to get back into writing so I appreciate those of you that are encouraging me cuz I need all that I can get. **


	3. Window

It turned out that the little occurrence that had sparked my reputation as a new member of the Wolves had already spread into the rest of the gossiping people of Forks.

I know this, because when Charlie sat down for dinner he wanted to have a talk about who I "associate" with. This came to me as rather amusing, considering I really didn't have much of a choice over who I associated with, since Jacob was the only person I even knew.

"Now I'm not sure exactly what happened today in school, but I do know that birds of a feather flock together. You don't want to involve yourself with people that are going to drag you down."

He continued this talk for a few minutes.

Another bit of information that I found funny was that he claimed that he didn't know the specifics of what had happened in school today. Yet he had been the one that had been called into the school to hear everyone's story. Charlie knew more about the situation than even I did.

"Okay, I understand." I mumbled. "I won't hang out with Jake anymore."

This was a blatant lie. But Charlie loved Jake, and I knew that he would never want us to just stop talking.

"Jacob?" Charlie repeated, a questioning look in his eyes. "I wasn't talking about Jacob. He's a good kid. I was referring to Edward. He's questionable. Good parents, but him and his friends are just... a bad bunch. I don't want you getting involved with them."

I'm not sure why I felt a twinge of resentment at that request. It had been Edward who had flipped me off for no reason at all. But it seemed like the majority of Forks was just assuming the character of each of him and his friends.

"Jacob was the one that threw the first punch, dad." I stated, not wanting to cause an argument, just wanting to put the situation into perspective.

"I know that. He was doing it to protect you. Which I appreciate." Charlie stated.

I'm not sure what my expression had portrayed. Shock? Anger? Whatever it was, Charlie seemed to back off, thanking me for dinner and placing his dirty dishes into the sink.

Yes, Edward had been a jerk. A huge one, even. But Jacob was the one that started the fight over relatively nothing. In Phoenix you couldn't drive down a street without being flipped off by a stranger for no reason at all. So I'd have survived the same treatment in a school setting. Now it was just going to be harder to stay on the down low.

Not that it was easy before.

When I finished eating I placed my dish over Charlie's dirty ones and turned on the water. Yes, the majority of Forks didn't even have washing machines and had to wash by hand.

Placing my iPod on shuffle, I began to scrape, scrub, rinse and dry the dishes that had accumulated in the sink.

Call me obsessive, but I still couldn't get the two groups out of my head.

From what I had gathered, Jacob and Edward both seemed like the popular guys in school, along with their little "gangs". It just seemed like Jacob was the cool guy that everyone spoke to, while Edward was the cool guy that everyone was too intimidated to do so. A sort of good and evil. At least through the eyes of the students.

Just by looking at Rosalie and Alice, the two most attractive girls I had ever seen, I could gather that they weren't exactly the losers the school. If they didn't model, they were doing the world an injustice.

When I finished the dishes it was nearly eight o clock and I went upstairs to my room. I hadn't gotten completely accustomed to my room yet, so it didn't have that "welcome home" vibe. What I did appreciate, though, was my window, which was directly next to a large tree. Back home (where I _used_ to live. I reminded myself) my room didn't have a window.

As I was appreciating the simple concept of a window, I saw movement up the street.

Was it a normal thing for a person to be walking around at dusk? Or was living in the city turning me into an ignorant person?

Regardless, I watched the figure as it walked slowly closer to the house. The person seemed to be in no hurry, nor did it look lost. I strained my eyes to make out the details of the person. It was a guy, for sure, but that was all that I could tell.

By this time he was on the sidewalk directly in front of my house. He was pretty tall. And then it occurred to me.

It was Jacob.

He hadn't been to my house in years, so he was trying to find the correct house in the dark.

Feeling ridiculous for my paranoid thoughts, I opened my window.

"Hey!" I yelled out. The figure stopped walking and turned around to face my window. "Want to come inside?"

He seemed to hesitate before walking towards my window. I leaned down so I could hear whatever he wanted to tell me.

Instead of saying something, he began climbing the tree that lef into my room. I wasn't sure whether to tell him to stop, and I even briefly considered shaking the tree before realizing that I would probably kill him.

Instead, I opened my window wider and moved next to the window instead of in front of it, giving him the space that he needed to get into the house. If that was even what he was doing.

I heard the ruffling of the leaves, and then saw a socked foot on my window.

Socks?

"Jake, you know--" But I didn't finish. Because it wasn't Jacob that was standing in my room.

_It was Edward._

Embarrassingly, my first instinct was the scream. He must have seen this on my face because he leapt out at me (which didn't help the impulse) and put his hand over my mouth. Not harshly, but firmly.

"You call me here to get me in trouble?" he whispered loudly.

I shook my head and waited for him to remove his hand. When he did I took a step back and realized that I hadn't seen him this close up before. He was definitely attractive. Easily the most attractive guy that had ever been in my house before. In a way, I felt almost star struck. This was the elusive Edward, who seemed to be shrouded in mystery.

And he was in my room.

Staring right at me.

"I... thought you were Jake." I said stupidly.

Wow. That was sure clever.

He chuckled quietly. "I have never been mistaken for Jacob before. This is new."

He took a few steps towards my window and for a moment I thought that he was going to leave. I'm not sure why this alarmed me as much as it did, but I found my mind reeling for an excuse for him to stay.

"Why aren't you wearing any shoes?" I asked.

There. Small talk.

He looked down at his feet, as if he had no idea what I was even talking about.

"I was. They're at the bottom of the tree. I didn't think you'd want dirt on your carpet." As if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"Well why'd you climb the tree to begin with?" I asked.

He continued to walk towards the window, and my heart gave a little squeeze when he reached for it. But instead of somehow vaulting his body out of it, he mearly closed it shut before turning to face me again.

"Well, your dad is the chief of police. You're a sixteen year old girl. I didn't think that you actually wanted me to go to your door step, knock on your door and ask if I can go into his daughter's bedroom at nearly nine at night." he stated.

Which made sense.

There was a brief awkward silence in which I had no idea how to fill. And it appeared I didn't have to, since Edward was looking just as comfortable as if he were in his own room right now.

"So what did you want to talk to Jacob about?" he questioned, his eyes exploring the embarrassingly simple decor of my room. He was hinting about what went down at lunch today. But I just wanted to forget about it, so I wasn't taking his bait.

"No reason. I saw you walking and thought that it was him looking for my house."

"Why would he be looking for your house?" he inquired.

"He would probably just want to talk about my first day of school or something."

"Couldn't he just call?"

There were a few seconds of silence as I stared at him in wonder. He seemed to get it.

"I'm not trying to pick on you or meddle. I'm seriously just curious. We haven't had a new kid in school in ages, and never has a new kid immediately gotten invovled in the Wolves. I was just trying to understand you by what you say, not what I hear other people say."

Perhaps that should have made me warm and fuzzy inside, but instead it set me off.

"I'm not involved with the Wolves or whatever you want to call it." I stated evenly. "As a matter of fact, I don't even classify them or you and your friends as real gangs. All you are is a group of friends."

He brought his attention away from the ceiling and looked me straight in the eye.

"I never claimed that I was in a gang. You did. And I refer to Jacob as a member of the Wolves because that's what he refers to himself as."

His tone wasn't harsh or mean, but it still made me feel like a bad person. I was scrambling for something to say to bring the conversation back to a calm feel, but before I could, Edward spoke.

"Look, I'm sorry for flipping you off at lunch of whatever. If you were in my head, you'd understand. But I gotta go."

He wasted no time with gestures of farewell. Instead, he opened the window and as quickly as it took him to get up, he was back on the ground. I crept my way over to the window and saw him pull his shoes back on over his socks, and instead of walking back towards where he had been headed from, he continued down the street.

What did he even mean "if you were in my head you'd understand"?

By now it was completely dark outside, and even I was partially worried over the quiet darkness of the house.

Where the heck was he even going to? I had seen his car during school, too.

With a sigh, I plopped myself down at my desk and decided to spend the next hour or two coasting the Internet. I was surprised to see that I had 15 new emails. I never got emails.

As ridiculous as it sounds, I had anticipated Edward having sent me something cryptic and msyerious. Something fundamentally simple that would have me thinking for days.

So I don't know why I was disappointed to find no trace of Edward. As if he had run all the way home, tacked down my email, and suddenly decided he wanted to be bffs.

Instead, I was faced with twelve new friend requests, and three messages. the friend requests were all from people I had never spoken to in Forks, and the messages were all from Mike.

What was that overly used phrase? Oh, yeah.

FML.

I accepted all of them, since I had a feeling everyone was going to be checking to see if the new girl was officially on their friend's list. Only one person that requested me did I know and like, and that was Embry.

As luck had it, he was even online. I clicked on his name to begin a chat.

_Bella:_ Hey. Thanks for the add.

_Embry:_ Np. How was the rest of school?

I breathed a sigh of relief. Other than the brief abbreviation, Embry didn't seem like the type that shortened already short words or made up his own acronyms. Thank God for that.

_Bella:_ Pretty boring. You guys were the talk of the school though.

_Embry:_ lol. Yeah. Jacob has a habit of jumpin the gun wen it comes to Edward.

It felt weird seeing Edward's name in print. But now I was going off of curiosity.

_Bella:_ Really? Is there any particular reason?

There was a straight minute of silence, and then the box saying that he was typing appeared. It disappeared, then appeared again. Whatever he was typing he was obviously trying to word correctly. I was curiously leaning forward, as if by being a few inches closer to the screen, the knowledge would enter my brain a little faster.

_Embry:_ Im gonna go to bed early tonight. We can finish this later, though?

My heart dropped a little, followed by a twinge of irritation, and finally replaced with suspicion. It wasn't even ten o clock yet.

_Bella:_ Okay. Good night.

Suddenly, the computer said that Mike was now on line. My mouse bolted to the 'Sign Off' button, but it was too late.

_Mike:_ heyyyy. i didnt no u had an fb.

I groaned. The chat speak typer. Kill me now.

_Bella:_ Yeah. It's new.

_Mike:_ cool cool. so wats up?

Oh how much I hated that phrase.

I decided to pull an Embry and say that I was going to bed.

_Mike:_ thats cool. catch u on the flip side.

I didn't even know what that meant.

**Thank you sooo much to those that are helping me come back to writing! I cherish every review I've gotten and appreciate the support sooo much. Thank you!**


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